3 remaining undecided House races

On Thursday, two close California races were decided: Republican incumbents Dan Lungren in CA-7 and Brian Bilbray in CA-52 lost their seats.

The Undecided Three now include LA-3 (which is scheduled for a runoff in three weeks) and NC-7 and AZ-2 (where Democratic incumbents cling to narrow leads).

Meanwhile, in FL-18, Rep. Allen West has asked for a recount in his tight re-election race, but he trails by nearly 2,000 votes.

Below is a breakdown of each race: NC-7: This one is still really close. Incumbent Mike McIntyre (D), one of the few remaining Blue Dog Democrats in the House, continues to cling to a 436-vote lead over challenger David Rouzer. McIntyre leads by .14% of the 335,000 votes cast.

AZ-2: Gabby Gifford’s old seat remains too close to call. Incumbent Ron Barber, a former Giffords staffer, continues to lead Republican challenger Martha McSally by 654 votes, as of this morning. About 31,000 remain uncounted in Pima County, though not all pertain to this race. Pima County, which makes up the bulk of the district, is where Barber won a slight advantage on Election Day.

LA-3: Two Republican incumbents are headed for a runoff on Dec. 8th in this district. Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. leads Rep. Jeff Landry by a 45-30% margin on Election Day, but under Lousiana law, they must face each other in a runoff because no candidate won a 50% majority of the vote. Just because Boustany lead handily last week doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll prevail in the runoff, when only the most hardcore voters usually cast ballots. Landry has strong Tea Party support.

CA-7: This one is over, and longtime congressman Dan Lungren (R) lost his re-election race. Lungren hasn’t conceded, but what had been a close race of less than 200 votes has now ballooned to a lead of more than 5,700 votes for Democratic challenger Ami Beri. There are still about 39,000 votes left to count in Sacramento County, but only a fraction of them pertain to this race.

CA-52: With every passing day, Democrat Scott Peters continues to pad his lead over incumbent Brian Bilbray (R). After Election Day, Peters led by fewer than 700 votes, but that lead has now grown to 3,877. Peters gained nearly a thousand votes yesterday alone. Now local columnists are starting to call for Bilbray to concede. Both men are in Washington this week for freshman orientation, but Peters appears to have has won this one.

FL-18: Rep. Allen West (R) has formally petitioned the FL Secretary of State for a recount, but he appears to have lost to Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy. West trails by 1,907 voters -- just outside the window for a mandatory recount under Florida law.